Index strips



Nov. 14, 1967 E. T. FLElscHHAur-:R 3,352,740

INDEX STRIPS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Oct. 2, 1963 r.............r.".. r1.1.11......'..11'. 11...'.

INVENTOR. EUGENE T. FLelscHHAusa 40AM/@m Nov. 14,

Filed Oct.

E. T. FLEISCHHAUER INDEX STRIPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 UNWANTED PRINT CHARACTER 12.25 UNWANTED PRINT CHARACTER gas 7 27 :3 am ff i l i TYPE CENTER/.INE DISPLACEMENT a l y /Z l MN n n. I t I TYPE CENTERUNE DlsPLAca-:MENT

INVENTOR.

E UGENE T'. FLeascHHAuER ATTYS ares lice 3,352,740 ENDEX lRllfS Eugene T. lFleiscnhauer, Charlottesville, Va., assigner to Acme Visible Records, lne., Crozet, Va., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 2, 1963, Ser. No. 313,225 E1l Clmfrn. (Cl. 161-112) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE Flexible index strips in continuous hingedly connected sheet laminate form for use on back printers comprising a compressible, resilient, flexible core portion having a low modulus of elasticity faced with a relatively thin printable web of relatively high modulus of elasticity and backed with a relatively thin web, said laminate being formed with score lines extending wholly through the facing web and core to define a plurality of separable elongated relatively narrow strips.

This invention relates to improvements in record or index strips provided in sheet or roll form for use in visible index record equipment of the class described in Powell US. Patent 1,594,112 and in Deinlein et al. US. Patent 2,832,712, where the sheet or roll of record strips comprises relatively thin resilient wood veneer core, surfaced on its upper face with a sheet of paper adapted to receive indicia as by typewriting, and backed with a relatively thin sheet of paper, the assembly being scored or cut transversely through the upper sheet of paper and the wood veneer to form a chain of relatively narrow elongated hingedly connected record strips adapted to be inserted into a typewriter, tabulator, addressing, duplican ing or the like business machine for applying information to the record strips.

After desired information has been applied to the chain of connected reco-rd strips, the strips are manually or` mechanically separated from each other by rupturing the thin connecting backing sheet, and the separated strips mounted on suitable frames having inturned longitudinal flanges by exing the strips and inserting their opposed ends beneath the frame flanges, as is well known in the art.

lthough record strips having wood veneer and the like rigid cores are satisfactory for use with typewriters which have typed characters that are propelled to strike the paper medium through an inked ribbon, the assembly being backed by a cylindrical rubber platen, such heretofore conventional construction has been found to be unsatisfactory when employed on business machines employing what is known as back printers such as described in Simpson et al. U.S. patent 3,041,964, and others issued to International Business Machines Corporation, which have type characters which are held relatively fixed with respect to the paper and ribbon for printing and wherein a hammer strikes the rear of the paper to bring it into contact with the inked ribbon-type character combination.

Whereas flexible and rigid materials can be satisfactorily employed on conventional typewriters, only relatively ilexible material can be printed satisfactorily on back printers of the character aforesaid because rigid materials of the character heretofore known tend to distribute the printing pressure over a broad area resulting in printing of adjacent unwanted characters producing a blurred appearance.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide record strips of the class aforesaid which can be imprinted on back printers without imprinting adjacent unwanted characters in a manner whereby the printing force is conned in a Zone directly between the type character and its corresponding striker and not allowed to diverge significantly.

The objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing a laminate having a cushioning impact core, that is one which is compressible, resilient and flexible and has a low modulus of elasticity on the order of less than about 200,000 pounds per square inch, such as is provided by employing a core composed of rubber bonded cellulose fiber, felt, cork, soft paper and cellular material such as expanded or foamed resins and the like, these cores being laminated between sheets of paper at least one of which is of relatively tough flexible nature such as ledgerpaper and which is printable. The laminate even though its components are flexible is of sufficient rigidity to be passed through the business machine and subsequently employed as index or record strips which can be mounted on flanged holder frames as aforesaid. These cores are on the order of about .016 to about .024 inch in thickness. The prior wood veneer core had a modulus of elasticity in the range of 1 million to 11/2 million pounds per square inch.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention, its details of construction and arrangement of parts, will be apparent from a consideration of the following specification and accompanying drawings wherein:

FlG. 1 is a perspective View showing a sheet of flexible index strips in continuous hingedly connected sheet form of tbe present invention.

FlG. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FlG. 3 is a diagrammatic view illustrating an arrangement of back printing apparatus employing flexible index strips in continuous hingedly connected sheet laminate form of the present invention.

FG. 4 is a rear elevational view of the sheet material of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged section taken on the line 5 5 of FiG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a section on the line 6 6 of FIG. 5.

FlG. 7 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the operation of the back printer in combination with a flexible index or record strip of the prior art.

FIG. 8 diagrammatically indicates the resulting printing pressure and distribution thereof when employing such prior art device.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are views similar to those of FIGS. 7 and 8 but employing the improved construction of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral 1t) indicates a continuous Isheet of hingedly connected flexible index strips of the present invention composed of a core 11 adhesively bonded between a facing sheet 12 and a backing sheet 13. The assembly is further formed with a series of marginal regularly spaced apertures 14 at its opposed longitudinal edges for facilitating its use in business machines, as will be hereinafter explained.

The assembly is further provide with two spaced series of longitudinally extending score lines 15, 15 which as shown are suitably spaced lines of perforation extending through the assembly so that `after -use the perforated areas may be broken away by flexing the perforated area on the score lines 15. The assembly is further provided with transversely extending score or severance lines 16 which extend completely through the top sheet 12 and through the core 11 and into the backing 13. While the backing 13 as indicated in FIG. 2 is not fully cut through and remains as a hinge, in order to insure unity while being typed on, the back 13 may be provided with removable strips of :adhesive as shown in the aforesaid Deinlein et al. Patent 2,832,712, or the perforation may be effected in a manner leaving hinge-like portions 21 on the backing sheet 13. Unity of the sheet before it is desired to sever the component strips 12 therefrom is further aided by the spaced score or longitudinally extending lines of perforation 15. Thus after the facing 12 has been typed on, the component strips may be separated by breaking away the strips on the marginal score lines 15 and by further breaking away the connecting web of the backing 13 or its component tapes or thicker hinged areas 21.

As previously indicated, the core 11 of the present invention is suitably composed of material such as cellulose fibers lbonded by means of a natural or synthetic rubber such as butadiene styrene co-polymer; of conventional felt; or undensified bulky paper such as a sheet composed of a mixture of kraft, sulfite and groundwood pulp; adhesively bonded cork particles, lbalsa wood, polyethylene foam, polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam, polyethylene film, and the like compressible, resilient flexible materials which after being compressed return substantially to their orginal form so as to provide impact cushioning in the back printing device previously referred to and which will be hereinafter more fully described.

As previously indicated, .at least the facing layer 12, and desirably also the backing layer 13, are preferably formed of flexible but strong materials having high modulus of elasticity approaching that of wood such as ledger, map, kraft and the like papers, or synthetic film material such as cellulose acetate, polyesters such as polyethylene terphthalate and the like or combinations of paper and synthetic resin film materials.

As previously indicated, the thickness of the core 11 should ybe from about 0.16 to about .024 inch and the facing and backing sheets 12 and 13 desirably have thickness of about .006 inch.

FIG. 3 shows a back printer employing the sheet material of the present invention. Thus, sheet material 16 of the present invention is fed from the roll 17 thereof through the machine generally designated as 18 by drawing it over the sprocket 19 of the driven band 20, the sprockets 19 entering the marginal apertures 14 in the sheet 10. The sheet in its passage between the aforesaid points passes underneath the guide bar 23 and over the guide bar 24 with the face 12 of the sheet 10 disposed against the ribbon 25 lying against one run of the endless belt member 26 carrying the type members 27. As is understood, in operation the 1belt 26 is driven through the sprocketwheel 28 to bring one of the type characters 27 into juxtaposition to one of the horizontal series of back strikers or hammers 29 which are operated in sequence by means of the armature arms 30 pivoted at 31 and actuated by electromagnets 32. The hammers 29 act against the back 13 of the laminate 10-and thus press a component strip face 12 against the ribbon 25 and relatively rigid fixed type character 27.

If one were to employ the Wood veneer core strips of the prior art in this arrangement, the effect would be substantially as shown in FIGS. 7 :and 8. Thus, FIG. 7 shows a strip laminate having a paper backing 13, a paper facing 12, and a core 11 of wood veneer, thus presenting a relatively rigid assembly, and when the back striker or hammer 29 moves to make 1an impression from a type member 27 in alignment therewith, due to the rigidity of the assembly and the printing pressure, not only is there an impression from the desired type character 27 but blurred impressions are also obtained from the adjacent type characters 27. FIG.` 8 diagrammatically illustrates the magnitude of the pressure and the resulting lateral components causing impressions from the unwanted type characters even though they have not been compressed by the single back striker 29.

As distinguished from this, FIGS. 9 and 10 diagrammatically illustrate the operation resulting from the presentinvention. Thus, it will be noted that when the back striker29 acts against the assembly 10 of the present invention compression is localized, and although of the same magnitude as in FIG. `6 the lateral displacement is substantially confined to the desired single type character 27 in alignment with the striker hammer 29 so that little if any unwanted blurred printing comes about from the adjacent type characters 27 on either side of the one which is in alignment with the actuated striker bar 29. After release of the striker bar 29, the laminate 10 assumes its substantially planar formation due to the cushioning effect lof the core 11 of the present invention.

Although I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention it will be understood by those skilled in the fart that changes may be made in the details thereof without departing from its scope as cornprehended by the following` claim.

I claim:

Flexible index strips in continuous hingedly connected sheet laminate form for use on back printers comprising a compressible, resilient, flexible impact cushioning core portion comprised of rubber bonded cellulose fibers sheet material faced with a relatively thin, tough, printable paper web and backed with a relatively thin, tough paper web both having a relatively high modulus of elasticity and strength, said laminate being formed with a series of longitudinally extending apertures adjacent its opposed marginal edges and longitudinal score lines defining marginal portions embracing said apertures, and transverse score linesbetween said longitudinal score lines extending completely through said facing web and core to define a plurality of separable elongated -relatively narrow strips.

4/1958 Deinlein et al. 161-112 

